


You’re The Most Scientifically Interesting!

by Midnightsecho



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: AU, Cecil is not human, Evil Science, Except Carlos is not evil, Fluff, M/M, Probably lots of needles and other bothersome stuff too, just kind of stuck, lots of science, not even close
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-03-28
Updated: 2014-04-03
Packaged: 2018-01-17 08:04:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1380121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Midnightsecho/pseuds/Midnightsecho
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>More or less an AU in which, instead of observing the town of Nightvale, the things that are interesting in Nightvale are taken to an underground research lab that does… questionable stuff at best, to both them and other things.  Cecil is one of the things dragged from Nightvale, not being completely human, and stubbornly refuses to show what he really is. Carlos is new to this building and given the hardest of ‘cases’, but that may not be a bad thing… But of course, the questionable-ness of the people who run the show may or may not be an issue, especially to poor Carlos who doesn't want anything to do with it, he just wants to learn stuff.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Instant Love, just add kindness

He had been assigned to a stubborn case. It wasn’t his first, but it was the first in this strange building. Most of it was underground, and so secret that even the people who worked there didn’t know what was on floors other than their own. The first two floors of the lab were just as one would expect. The cover up for operations down below that weren’t actually completely legal, but were of “the utmost importance to humankind”. That was what was said.  
The third floor consisted of nothing but offices. The fourth was the only one that Carlos knew about, and it was the one on which he was to work.

Strange things. Strange things was all that he was told. Strange creatures and plants and people, all taken from a strange town. The people were difficult. The plants were sometimes pretty violent and the animals even more so. This person he was assigned to was, apparently, not a human at all, but something completely different. It was difficult to piece things together, as this thing was more or less a shapeshifter, and often stayed in a human-like appearance and showed no differences… It also didn’t let anyone near it. The data was mostly a jumbled mess of nonsense. None of it was really helpful at all. He kept only what was really important on a clipboard and sighed.  
He adored his job. Loved science and all manner of neat and different things. He did not like when things were stubborn, when they hid their wonders. It got old after a while, and Carlos, while quite the good scientist, was not a patient one. Well, no more than he had to be. To keep with appearances.

Down endless halls he walked, and eventually found the door through which he was to enter for his first encounter with the creature. Thing.  
Person. He flipped through his notes, the ones left by the person previously studying this… Cecil… and noticed something scribbled on the back of a page that he’d not noticed before.  
“Extremely convincing and melodic voice, be vigilant!”  
Vigilant? It just made him more curious.

The door opened. It led to another door, but this one was more or less clear. Through it he saw a room, with a small window at the top of it (That could not look outside, they were four levels below ground). The ground was gray and metallic, the walls looked soft. Near the door, there was a red line. “Do not cross” was written with it in bold letters. Carlos knew that the instructions were not made for him, but for the thing contained within; it had to stay away from the door as it opened.  
Not it. He. He may not be human, but he was a living creature like everyone else. Even lab rats were not referred to as “it”, at the exception of in reports.

The clear door took a moment to open, but it eventually did, and Carlos stepped in. From here, he could see a small room and a bed. Under too-thin blankets his subject hid, or slept, maybe. He approached cautiously, a bit unsure of himself.  
He knew that he did not like being woken up. Carlos had heard the rumors, why he had been replaced. No one would tell him what exactly had happened to the person previously charged with this particular specimen… The rumours ranged from “Security had to pull them out because they randomly started hitting their head against the wall again and again!” to “We found them wandering outside babbling about absolutely nothing” to just “They died.” Carlos didn’t really know which one was true, maybe none of them, but he knew he didn’t want to make the other grumpy by waking him up. Starting off on the wrong foot wouldn’t help either of them.

 

———————————————————————-

The door let off a small buzz when it opened. The sound was just enough to wake Cecil up, but not a startling way. In fact, he was almost certain he hadn’t heard it… Until he heard footsteps and the rustling of paper.  
Oh no. He had no sense of time (what with that fake window always shining sunlight on him), but he had been left alone for quite a while. Cecil wanted to go home more than anything, but having been left alone was the next best thing. Home. To his apartment with all the homey touches, thicker blankets, a bed that did not feel like a rock slab and the blackened mirrors… It’d be nice to go to the washroom without cowering from the reflective surface.  
Oh, and to work! Which was more or less home too! The cozy chair, the beautiful microphone, the adorable cat that floats in the men’s washroom.  
Floated. The scientists arrived like a storm, and tore apart the town. Everything that was considered odd or interesting was ripped from it’s place in Nightvale and thrown into cages like the one Cecil was stuck in. Poor, foolish Cecil, who had stayed to report these going-ons as a dedicated reporter instead of fleeing like everyone else! Probably many of his friends were stuck in places and rooms just like this one, far away from home.

He didn’t want to be poked and prodded anymore, he wanted to go home. He turned to tell The scientist just that but-

It was not The scientist. Well, it was A scientist, but not the same one. He carried nothing but a clipboard and some measuring tape, no poking needles or prodding anything. This new scientist was nothing like the old one, and Cecil had to wonder how someone with such absolutely beautiful hair could be a scientist instead of, say, a model. Because that lab coat looked amazing on him, and his time in this underground room had, he’d thought, scarred him for life.

“Good morning, I hope I didn’t wake you up,” he said. Oh wow. What a lovely voice. And people said that Cecil had lovely vocal cords. Wow wow-  
Nope. Cecil sat up and shook his head. The other seemed to take that as an answer to his question instead of a defiance to inner thoughts.  
As absolutely perfect as this man looked, he was still a scientist and still keeping him here like some sort of monster.  
By association. It was his fault.

“Alright then… I’m now assigned to you, so I thought today we could take things easy and just talk. I know you were given a hard time by the last person who examined you and I’m very sorry, Cecil,” he said.  
Wow, and more wow and just- Ah! He’d never thought his own name could sound so… Lovely. Not to mention, he was being talked to like he was a real person instead of some plant or otherwise unintelligent creature. There was concern, he thought. There was a name, instead of constantly being referred to as “subject”(Followed by a bunch of numbers that Cecil didn’t remember or bother to memorize.) Cecil nodded and he sat up on the bed, so that the other could sit down. He didn’t really expect him too, but he did, with a grateful and beautiful smile.  
“Thank you…” he said, and then his eyes lit up as if he’d just remembered something. “I’m sorry, my name is Carlos. I suppose it’s a bit rude of me not to introduce myself, especially when I know so many technical things about you…”

Concern. Being treated like an actual person with feelings and thoughts. And not to mention that beautiful face and that perfect hair…  
If it wasn’t for the situation he was in, Cecil would say he’d fallen in love with this new scientist.


	2. I am Human...Ish.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carlos is interesting to Cecil, and refreshing. He treats Cecil as human, as another person with thought and feelings and relationships with others. Carlos is caring, and he cares a lot about helping Cecil get home. Subconsciously. He is starting to worry about the company's ethics though...

They talked.  
Like people did. There were no questions about Cecil’s physique, no prodding about the town, nothing. Carlos and Cecil conversed about what Cecil liked to eat, about what Carlos’ favorite foods were, about music and favorite animals and about the assholes that Cecil was pleased to not be around anymore.  
“I mean, he wears one of those cartoonish headdresses. Not even a real one! He’s not even native,” he ranted. Cecil could have sworn he saw the scientist next to him crack a smile in amusement. He wasn’t really certain what was amusing.  
“There are bad people everywhere,” he admitted, and the smile was replaced with a frown. “I wish they had not moved everything here. Studying all of this in its natural habitat would have been so rewarding…” The words reminded Cecil that this was a scientist there to study him, but he could not bring himself to be too concerned. He remembered the first scientist, and his first meeting. He’d asked about important things, he’d tried to be friendly, but was only given cold stares and rough shoves, like some disobedient animal.

Already this was different. He was being spoken to, and smiled at. Carlos sat at a reasonable distance, but not so far as to make Cecil feel disconnected from him, or to make Cecil think he was scared of him or nervous. He seemed genuinely interested. And yes, a few things were scribbled down, but Carlos was still listening, even if he was nervously rambling about pizza places and less-than-friendly, not-so-family family members. It was pretty hard not to be nervous in such gorgeous presence.

The talking ended, but Cecil found he didn’t mind. There was poking and prodding, but he didn’t mind that either. It was gentle, and he actually complied. Carlos asked him to open his mouth (“If it’s okay with you, of course. If not, we can do it later,” he said. How considerate!) and he counted his teeth and made little notes about it on the note pad. His temperature was taken and a few other, rather normal things. Kind of like getting a check up at the doctor’s, only Carlos wasn’t a doctor. He was a scientist, and he was very polite about it. When he stopped, he just stared at Cecil for a bit, with a small frown.   
“What?” Cecil asked in concern.   
“What do they feed you? And how much?” Carlos asked. He sounded concerned as well. So Cecil thought about it.  
“Not a lot. I’m not really sure what it is. It doesn’t even taste like anything,” he grimaced. If anything, it tasted like cardboard and had the consistency of watered-down oatmeal. Carlos made a humming noise, but Cecil nearly missed it when a loud noise came from the door. Carlos frowned at him, but Cecil already knew what he was going to say and frowned, too.  
“ I have to go. I’ll be back tomorrow,” he said, and then he left through the two doors.

Cecil wasn’t really sure when tomorrow would be. He’d have to wait. So he fell asleep, and waited. He woke up to noise and the door opening, but it was not Carlos. It was a person accompanied by a guard, who rolled in a silver cart and then left. Cecil knew what it was. It was what they tried to pass off as food, and he had no choice to eat because he needed to eat something bu-  
No.  
No it was not. It had a smell to it. A familiar one that Cecil felt drawn to. Before even taking the cover off, he breathed in the scent, inhaling deeply. Under the cover was pasta and that was-  
That was cake! Chocolate cake. Cecil pulled the tray closer to his bed and sat there, gladly digging in yet slowly eating to savor every bite. This could only be for today, and then tomorrow he would be back to that terrible food he had to have. But for today, this was his reality, and things were more or less looking up.

Until he looked down, and saw that there was a thicker blanket on the bottom shelf, so they were REALLY looking up. It was soft and smelled of outside and ever-so-faintly of lavender, and after Cecil finished his food, he curled up underneath it and instantly felt so much happier.

\------------

Scribbles translated into legible print. Notes and findings organized.  
Carlos was surprised to be done for the day. This was strange; everywhere else, he had to work into the morning hours and run on hardly any sleep, but here, he was only allowed a small amount of time to observe Cecil. It seemed strange and not very productive at all, but they were the rules and it was important that he follow them. This was a new company that he was working for, not the people he knew, who knew he did a good job and let him slide with many things.

Carlos was surprised they let him demand Cecil be given half decent food. But he told them that he would be more agreeable and in better condition to evaluate if they did. He’d had to make the comparison to malnourished lab rats, and the idea of having to compare a humanoid person to a lab rat made him want to grimace and make a manner of other displeased faces, but he’d managed to get them to understand. From his car, he’d also taken a blanket and asked the one bringing the tray in to give it to Cecil as well. He was not ill so far, but Carlos wanted to keep it that way.

Only after everything was done did he think back on this encounter on a personal level.  
He felt bad for Cecil. Sitting in that room with so little, being treated like a guinea pig without rights wasn’t fair. Before he’d been hired, something about this company had worried him and felt off. Now that feeling was confirmed, but he didn’t know what to do.

Oh. Preform. Present the data needed. Outperform. Go above and beyond their expectations. To gain the trust of his higher-ups, to be given more freedom. From there he could help Cecil with little things, get clearance to do things… And maybe even get Cecil home once everything needed was found. And he could continue in this company and fix things that other scientists with no respect for lives or morals had broken.

That was a lot to put on his shoulders, so he shook his head and decided to concentrate on Cecil.  
Later. Because there were a lot of interesting things right on this level that he wanted to observe.

Carlos asked permission, of course, and presented his data (Which was received with a very confused but apparently pleased expression), and was allowed to observe the other things brought in from NightVale. There were strange books, crazy librarians (who he did not approach, as the warning told him not to), blood stones and samples of ground from… the label said “near the dog park”... That was odd. There was a floating cat that sniffed him and seemed very content with his presence, though it still made him cough despite being like no cat Carlos had ever seen. (Before he left it, he told the cat that Cecil said ‘hello’. It made a strange noise like static, so Carlos hurried off worriedly.) He did not spend too much time, but he observed as much as he could. He spent a great deal of time dismantling a couple of clocks, only to find there were no cogs or gears or mechanical parts of any kind. That was pretty strange indeed.

When Carlos went home, he did not stay up long. He ate and showered, did his laundry, and then he went to bed content. It was hard to get his buzzing mind to sleep, but he convinced it somehow, and then when the morning came, he greeted it eagerly.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I'll pretend to know what I am doing here. Never used this website. Obviously.  
> You can count on lots more WTNV fanfics being posted soon. Because that's kind of what I do. Anyways... This is also on tumblr. I am aware. It wasn't stolen. (I'm a bit too used to FF.net, sorry.) Anyways, do TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK OF IT. Also! I LOVE when people tell me their predictions. That's like.... The best thing ever.


End file.
